Amid growing concerns over illegal quarrying, the authorities in Mandya district have deployed a drone over Baby Betta and its surrounding areas in Pandavapura taluk to check illegal quarrying activities through aerial surveillance.
The Department of Mines and Geology, Mandya, deployed a drone for aerial surveillance after the Assistant Commissioner of Pandavapura taluk B.C. Shivanandamurthy issued orders earlier this week banning all types of mining and stone crushing activities in Baby Betta and its surrounding areas for the next two months.
“The Police Department has provided its drone to the Department of Mines and Geology to monitor illegal quarrying activities in Baby Betta and surrounding areas,” Superintendent of Mandya district police Parashurama K. told The Hindu. The aerial surveillance will continue till the ban is in force, he said.
According to an order issued on January 25, the Assistant Commissioner of Pandavapura, who is also the taluk magistrate, banned all types of mining and stone crushing activities in several villages in and around Baby Betta in Pandavapura till March 24, 2021.
Illegal quarrying here had become a source of major concern after the recent blast of an explosive-laden truck in Shivamogga. Rampant mining activities in the area had also been blamed by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) for the tremors experienced by the KRS dam nearby. For, in September 2018, the seismic monitoring station at KRS had recorded two “signatures” coming from a radial distance of around 10.5 km, which is around the same radial distance at which the quarrying area of Baby Betta is located.
In the wake of the Shivamogga blast, various organisations had called for a halt to the quarrying activities in the ecologically sensitive Baby Betta area, fearing a threat to the 80-year KRS reservoir, which is the lifeline of the people of several parts of Karnataka and neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, Lokayukta P. Vishwanath Shetty has ordered Deputy Commissioner, Shivamogga district, to conduct an inquiry into illegal mining in the district, steps taken to prevent it and lapses thereof and submit a report in six weeks.
Mr. Shetty has said in his order that an earlier report by the Mines and Geology Department on illegal mining in the district showed the particular mine where the blast occurred killing many was also booked and if mining operations were stopped at the mine after the criminal case, the accident could have been prevented. However, he said he would not launch a probe into the incident as the State government had already ordered a probe, but would inquire into illegal mining in the district and ordered the Deputy Commissioner to submit the investigation report.
Licence cancelled
Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner has cancelled the licence of S.S. Stone Crushers, located at Kallganguru in Shivamogga taluk, where a blast took place claiming six lives on January 21.
Deputy Commissioner K.B. Shivakumar, who is also chairman of the District Stone Crushers Licensing and Regulation Authority, has issued the order cancelling the licence. The cancellation order has been issued as per the Karnataka Stone Crushers Regulation Act 2011. The licence was issued on April 12, 2019. B.V. Sudhakar had the licence to set up the stone crushing unit on five acres of land located in survey number 2 of Kallganguru village.
